3 WMass GM dealerships not being reinstated

File photo by Don Treeger/The RepublicanSterling A. Orr II, President of Orr Cadillac GM poses in his car lot. Orr Cadillac GM was not among the dealerships that are being reinstated by General Motors.
SPRINGFIELD – At least three area General Motors dealerships are not among the 661 dealers reinstated last week.
“I just keep telling myself that we are in no worse a position than we were before the announcement last week,” said Sterling A. “Sandy” Orr III, president of Orr Cadillac in Springfield and a third-generation Cadillac dealer.
Orr said if he was to be reinstated, he’d have gotten a phone call and letter from GM by Tuesday. None came.
But he did get the promise of a sit-down meeting with GM officials outside of the formal arbitration process, a meeting he didn’t have before last week when GM announced it would reinstate 661 of the 1,100 dealers that filed for arbitration.
“Now there is this softening in position,” Orr said Wednesday.
Donald F. Pion, owner of Bob Pion Pontiac-Buick-GMC in Chicopee, and Bryan J. Burke, owner of Burke -Whitaker Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC Truck in Northampton, said that they also have not gotten reinstatement letters but would instead go forward with arbitration.
Burke has already been told that he will keep his GMC truck dealership. GM ended the Pontiac brand and has pulled all three Cadillac dealerships from the Pioneer Valley: Orr, Burke and Lorenz Buick GMC Cadillac in Greenfield.
Dealers have been reluctant to discuss their status with GM while the process plays itself out.
Orr said the arbitration process, which is mandated by federal law, will end by June.
If he loses at arbitration, Orr said he’ll keep the dealership open selling used cars and making repairs. Like all dealerships that were slated to close, Orr lost the ability to order new Cadillacs from the factory in January. He can still order them from another dealer.
“It’s been a brutal, brutal few months,” he said.
Orr has 12 employees, down from more than 30 when he sold new cars.
Burke said he wants to add other GM brands so he can still offer passenger cars not sold under the GMC nameplate. But Burke said GM won’t tell him he’s getting more brands until after all the arbitration hearings are over.
In the summer, GM announced plans to close 1,350 dealerships across the country by October of this year as the company navigated federal bankruptcy proceedings meant to help it shed debt and labor obligations.